'SA's Fruit Basket'
The bustling and lush town of Tzaneen is a rather unexpected pleasure here within the generally arid north.
Famous for its tropical fruits and extraordinarily scenic surrounds, the predominantly subtropical climate of the area makes for a flourishing garden town, filled with friendly people.
A number of Nature Reserves, Tzaneen Dam and the stunning Debengeni Waterfall (aka ‘The Place of the Big Pot’) - should be on your outdoor wish list, while the small but fascinating Tzaneen Museum makes for a few hours of ethnological fun.
Trees in Tzaneen
There are two kinds of thorns in Africa. Actually, Oom Schalk Lourens would well know, there are many kinds of thorn bushes with long, straight, sharp thorns that are only too happy to embed their needle selves into the soft rubberiness of a tubeless tyre, arm or leg: the sickle bush, common spike thorn, green thorn and any number of acacias.
One is the Knob Thorn acacia with its double recurved spines. The other is the Buffalo Thorn, with its lethal jab-and-hook combination. Its botanical name 'Ziziphys' recalls the ancient Greek oke trying to roll a big rock uphill: when you try to extricate yourself from the tangle, you just get more deeply entangled.
You will end the day sitting in the shade of a Gargantuan Baobab that could be a contender for the biggest tree in SA. What this one boasts, which no other can, is a pub right inside its elephantine trunk. You'll find it on Sunland farm, close to Modjasjiskloof, run by congenial couple Doug and Heather van Heerden.